Folklore of Sussex

by Jacqueline Simpson

  — ‘Be You Superstitious Like?’, SCM XVIII (1944), 261–2.

  — ‘Blackberry Pickers Beware’, SCM XXI (1947), 315–16.

  — ‘The Brighton Lanes’, SCM XXI (1947), 284–6.

  — ‘Buried Treasure in the Sussex Hills’, WSG 2.3.1967.

  — ‘Customs of Brighton Fisherfolk’, SCM XIII (1939), 272–3.

  — ‘The Fight for Brighton Fishmarket’, SCM XX (1946), 84–6.

  — ‘Marry in June’, SCM XX (1946), 144–5.

  — Memories of Old Sussex, 1987.

  — ‘Old Wassailing Customs in Sussex’, WSG 29.12.1966.

  — ‘Plant Lore of Sussex’, SCM XXI (1947), 130–1.

  — ‘Pumpkin Pie and Other Good Things at the Harvest Feast’, WSG 1.9.1966.

  — ‘St Clement’s Day’, SCM XXI (1947), 400–2.

  — ‘Sussex Sprites and Goblins’, SCM XVII (1943), 96–7.

  — ‘Sussex Tipteerers with a Traditional Christmas Play’, WSG 7.12.1967.

  — ‘A Tale of Sussex Honey’, SCM XXIII (1949), 154–6.

  — Tales of Old Sussex, 1985.

  — ‘When Stir-up Sunday Started the Christmas Preparations’, WSG 18.11.1965.

  Cawte, E.C., Helm, A. and Peacock, N. English Ritual Drama, 1967.

  Cooke, A.S. Off the Beaten Track in Sussex, 1911.

  Coomber, E. ‘Some Sussex Customs’, SCM I (1926/7), 117.

  Cooper, M. ‘History of the Villages: Slaugham’, SCM XXII (1948), 354–8.

  Copper, B. A Song for Every Season, 1971.

  — Early to Rise, 1976.

  — Songs and Southern Breezes, 1973.

  Egerton, J.C. Sussex Folk and Sussex Ways, 1884.

  Emslie, J.P. ‘Collecteanea’, Folklore XXVI (1915), 162–7.

  Etherington, J. Lewes Bonfire Night, 1993.

  Evershed, S. ‘The Legend of the Dragon-Slayer of Lyminster’, SAC XVIII (1886), 180–3.

  Firmin, B. An Illustrated Guide to Crowborough, 1890.

  Geering, T. Our Parish, 1884.

  Goodman, S. ‘New Light on Ebernoe Horn Fair’, SCM XXIX (1955), 320–3.

  Gordon, H.D. The History of Harting, 1877.

  Grinsell, L.V. ‘Sussex Barrows,’ SAC LXXV (1934), 238–9.

  Hall, H. see W. D. Parish.

  Hare, A.J.C. Sussex, 2nd ed., 1896.

  Hare, Chris (ed.) Good Old, Bad Old Days: The Sussex of Lawrence Graburn (Southern Heritage, 2001)

  Harmer, K. ‘Bewitched’, SCM XI (1937), 451–2.

  Haskins, G. ‘Old Sussex Charms and Superstitions’, SCM V (1931), 122.

  Horsefield, T.W. The History and Antiquities of Lewes, 1824.

  Joiner, C.G. ‘The Knucker of Lyminster’, SCM III (1929), 845–6.

  Latham, C. ‘Some West Sussex Superstitions Lingering in 1868’, Folk-Lore Record I (1878), 1–67.

  Lower, M.A. Chronicles of Pevensey, 1846.

  — Contributions to Literature, 1854.

  — ‘Old Speech and Old Manners in Sussex’, SAC XIII (1861), 209–36.

  Lucas, E.V. Highways and Byways in Sussex, 1904.

  Lulham, P.H. ‘Superstitions in Sussex’, SCM XIII (1939), 55–8.

  Marples, M. White Horses and Other Hill Figures, 1949.

  Merrifield, R. ‘Magical Games in Sussex’, SCM XXVI (1952), 58–63, 122–7.

  — ‘The Whitsun Ceremonies of Harting Old Club’, SCM XXVII (1953), 216–23.

  Milton, A.R. ‘The Wicked Old Woman’, SCM XVII (1943), 47–9.

  Parish, W.D. A Dictionary of Sussex Dialect, 1875. Second edition, revised, enlarged and illustrated, by Helena Hall, 1957.

  Robinson, M. A South Down Farm in the Sixties, 1938.

  Robinson, S.E. ‘Tom Reed: A Man and his Lore’, SCM IX (1935), 58–60.

  SAC, Sussex Archaeological Collections, 1848 (in progress).

  Sawyer, A. ‘Sussex Witches and Other Superstitions’, SCM IX (1935), 264.

  Sawyer, F.E. ‘Sussex Folklore and Customs Connected with the Seasons’, SAC XXXIII (1883), 237–60.

  — Sussex Place-Rhymes and Local Proverbs, 1884.

  SCM, Sussex County Magazine, 1926–1956.

  Secretan, S.D. ‘Legend of Rudgwick Church Bell’, SCM XVII (1943), 29–30.

  Shoosmith, E. ‘The Lundsfords of Whyly’, SCM III (1929), 238–42.

  Simpson, J. ‘Beyond Etiology: Interpreting Local Legends’, Fabula XXIV:3/4 (1983), 223–32.

  — ‘Hecate in the Primrose Wood: The Propagation of a Rumour’, Contemporary Legend IV(1994), 91–118.

  — ‘Legends of Chanctonbury Ring’, Folklore LXXX (1969), 122–31.

  — ‘The Local Legend: A Product of Popular Culture’, Rural History II:1 (1991), 25–36.

  — ‘The Lost Slinfold Bell: Some Functions of a Local Legend’, Lore and Language IV:1 (1985), 57–67.

  — ‘Multi-Purpose Treacle Mines in Sussex and Surrey’, Lore and Language III:6 (1982), 61–73.

  SNQ, Sussex Notes and Queries, 1926 (in progress).

  Stenning, I.M. ‘When We Were Children’, SCM XXVI (1952), 427–30, 468; XXVII (1953), 72–6.

  Toms, H.S. ‘Rabbits: A Folklore Note’, SCM IX (1935), 698–9.

  Venables, E.M. ‘More Memories of Apple Howling’, WSG 1.1.1967.

  Wales, T. A Sussex Garland, 1986.

  — A Treasury of Sussex Folklore, 2000.

  — We Wunt Be Druv: Songs and Stories from Sussex, 1976.

  ‘Wayfarer’. ‘Some Sussex Faith Cures’, SCM II (1928), 186.

  Wills, B. Shepherds of Sussex, 1938.

  Woolley, S.O. ‘Rough Music in Sussex’, Folklore LXIX (1958), 39.

  Wright, A.R. British Calendar Customs, 1936–40.

  Wright, M. Cuckfield: An Old Sussex Town, 1971.

  WSG, West Sussex Gazette, 1853 (in progress).

  Note: Old rural buildings and craft displays may be seen at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum, West Dean, Sussex.

  Blessing the Sea at Hastings, 1920s.

  Blessing the Boats, Lancing, 1992.

  The Wilmington Giant hill figure, near Eastbourne, 1920s.

  The Fig Gardens at Tarring, near Worthing, c. 1904. Traditionally said to be descended from fig trees planted by Thomas à Becket.

  Chanctonbury Ring with trees planted by Charles Goring in 1760 in an Iron Age earthwork.

  Old Club Day procession at Harting, c. 1924.

  Good Friday Marbles, Battle, 1949. (Photograph: Ralph Merrifield)

  Good Friday ‘Bat and Trap’, Brighton, c. 1936. (Photograph: Ralph Merrifield)

  Good Friday Skipping, Brighton, c. 1936. (Photograph: Ralph Merrifield)

  Steyning Walking Races, 1936.

  Cowfold May Day, 1912. (Photograph: Mr Mills)

  May Day Garland Dance, Lewes, 1994.

  Childrens’ May Day Garlands, Lewes, 1994.

  Country dancing, Hastings, 1970s.

  Sompting Mummers play, Boxing Day, 1993, performed by the Chanctonbury Ring Morris Men.

  Maskers in the Hastings Jack-in-the-Green Parade, 2001. (Photograph: Doc Rowe)

  Giant St George figure in Hastings Jack-in-the-Green Parade, May 2001.(Photograph: Doc Rowe)

  Programme for the Lewes Bonfire celebrations, 1873.

  Rye gibbet cage with the skull of murderer John Breads who was executed in 1743.

  Fair in High Street, Crawley, 1900s.

  The ‘Hangman’s Stone’, Rottingdean, 1900.

  The Miller’s Tomb on Highdown Hill, 1920s.

  The Miller’s Tomb on Highdown Hill near Tarring,Worthing, from a nineteenth-century engraving.

  The Goldstone ‘Druid’s Altar’, Hove Park, c. 1910. The Devil is said to have dropped it on Hove after digging the Devil’s Dyke.

  From a painting that once hung in the Roundstone pub, East Preston, depicting the body of an executed local criminal pinned down by a millstone and with a stake through the heart.

  Mock Bishops at Lews on Bonfire Night, 1992.Anti-Catholic demonstrations were once the main mot
ive for the event, and a few traces of this attitude remain. (Photograph: Doc Rowe)

  Torchlight procession in Lewes High Street, Bonfire night, 1992. (Photograph: Doc Rowe)

  The Hastings Jack-in-the-Green, May 2001.The custom was vigorously revived in 1983 and is now a large-scale annual event. (Photograph: Doc Rowe)

  After the parade, the Jack is ceremonially ‘killed’. The greenery is torn off the framework and distributed to onlookers for luck. Hastings, 2001. (Photograph: Doc Rowe)